The present invention relates to metal panels and enclosures, and more particularly, this invention relates to creating a replaceable knockout part in a metal panel.
Many electronic system chasses are enabled for numerous configurations. For example, one configuration of a system may have only 1 cable exiting the main chassis enclosure while another configuration may have 2 or more cables exiting the chassis. Also, sometimes an electronic chassis is designed to accommodate more than one type of electronics equipment, such as a computer chassis which is able to accept any of various motherboards and other system components which are designed according to dimensional criteria so that they will fit into standard housings. Furthermore, some components of electronics equipment require access to a portion of the component, such as a video monitor adaptor, which typically will have a video monitor adaptor which is accessible from the exterior of the housing. Each component of this type may have different size requirement for the exterior access.
One method of accommodating a variety of cables or other optional parts from exiting an enclosure is to have removable panels that are fastened onto the main enclosure. However, the number of fasteners that may exist on an enclosure can be large and time consuming to install from a manufacturing standpoint. Therefore, a more cost effective method and system of allowing for removable panels from a main enclosure would be beneficial from a manufacturing standpoint.
As shown in FIG. 1, a cheaper alternative currently being used is a “knockout” panel 102. The knockout panel 102 is held in place to the enclosure 106 with just 2-4 small contact points 104 of metal so that the panel 102 can be easily removed from the main enclosure 106, such as by being twisted back and forth such that the small metal webs 104 connecting the panel 102 to the main enclosure 106 are broken, and the knockout panel 102 can be separated from the rest of the enclosure 106.
However, the disadvantage of this feature is that the knockout panel is permanently removed from the main enclosure once those small metal webs have been broken. Therefore, a solution which can be replaced, but is also cost effective and does not require extra manufacturing assembly time and additional parts cost would be very beneficial.